Patent NZ-751089-A (NZ)
Title: Enclosures for treating materials
Inventor: PARADIS ROBERT
IPC: D21C5/00
Filed: 2014-03-07
Abstract: Many potential lignocellulosic feedstocks are available today, including agricultural residues, woody biomass, municipal waste, oilseeds/cakes and seaweed, to name a few. At present, these materials are often under-utilized, being used, for example, as animal feed, biocompost materials, burned in a co-generation facility or even landfilled. Lignocellulosic biomass includes crystalline cellulose fibrils embedded in a hemicellulose matrix, surrounded by lignin. This produces a compact matrix that is difficult to access by enzymes and other chemical, biochemical and/or biological processes. Cellulosic biomass materials (e.g., biomass material from which the lignin has been removed) is more accessible to enzymes and other conversion processes, but even so, naturally-occurring cellulosic materials often have low yields (relative to theoretical yields) when contacted with hydrolyzing enzymes. Lignocellulosic biomass is even more recalcitrant to enzyme attack. Furthermore, each type of lignocellulosic biomass has its own specific composition of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Generally, the inventions relate to enclosures for treating materials, such as biomass. The inventions also relate to facilities, methods and systems for producing products from a biomass material. Increasing throughput, safety and costs associated with treatment of biomass are key goals in the development of useful manufacturing processes. In methods involving irradiation, the throughput can be increased by multiple irradiations with more than one irradiation device. Hazards can be mitigated and safety enhanced by enclosing the irradiation devices in radiation opaque enclosures, for example a vault. To reduce the energy and material costs associated with the building materials used to construct the vault and transportation or conveying of the biomass between vaults during processing, sharing of walls between vaults has been found effective. The methods and systems disclosed herein include two or more treatment vaults sharing one or more common walls. Generally, the methods include treating a recalcitrant biomass with electron beams and then biochemically and chemically processing the reduced recalcitrance material to, for example, ethanol, xylitol and other products. In one preferred form of the invention there is provided a method of processing biomass material, the method comprising; conveying a layer of particulate biomass material through a first enclosure with a vibratory conveyor and exposing the biomass material to a first dose of ionizing radiation to produce a first treated biomass material, wherein the first dose of ionizing radiation is applied using a beam of an accelerated electron; conveying the first treated biomass material through a second enclosure with a vibratory conveyor and exposing the first treated biomass material to a second dose of ionizing radiation to produce a second treated biomass material, wherein the second dose of ionizing radiation is applied using a beam of an accelerated electron; and saccharifying the second treated biomass material with one or more enzymes to produce a sugar solution, wherein the first enclosure shares one or more common walls with the second enclosure.